Sometimes actors want to have a say in the words they're given; sometimes they want to stretch their artistic muscles; sometimes they look at the scripts they have to do and think, "I could do better than this!" When this happens, and the producers are on their side (or the network is), you have something written by a cast member.

Much less prevalent than Directed by Cast Member, particularly in these days of arc-driven television. Writing is less glamorous than directing, for one thing, and it's harder to develop a story from scratch than to bring someone else's to the screen.

Key to both of these tropes is that the actor gets into writing or directing through the show they're on, without having a previous background in it (let alone being the series creator). For the opposite direction of crossover, see Descended Creator and Creator Cameo. For shows where the cast and the writing staff heavily overlap, see Cast Full of Writers.

Examples:

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Literature

Ian Marter, who played Dr. Harry Sullivan in Doctor Who, subsequently wrote several of the Doctor Who Novelisations, as well as an entirely original novel featuring Harry as protagonist.

The Devil's Hairpin was written and directed by Cornel Wilde who also is the main star. Wilde also wrote a song called 'Swing It Just a Little More' for the soundtrack alongside Ross Bagdasarian who also wrote 'The Touch of Love' for the soundtrack as well.

Charles Laughton hated the Dalton Trumbo-written dialogue he was initially given in Spartacus, so Peter Ustinov rewrote all of the scenes featuring the two of them, which placated Laughton enough to complete his portion of the film.

Leonard Nimoy helped develop the fourth and sixthStar Trek films, and like Reeve, had the writers of an unused script try to muscle him out of the latter credit. (Coincidentally, they were the legitimate screenwriters of Superman IV.) A lawyer-negotiated compromise saw Nimoy share story credit with the pair.

Unlike Directed by Cast Member, very few episodes of the Star Trek franchise qualify - in fact, the only ones are DS9's "The Muse" (co-written by Majel Barrett-Roddenberry) and Voyager's "Life Line" (co-written by Robert Picardo). Both focused on those actors' characters. (Walter Koenig wrote "The Infinite Vulcan" for the animated series, but due to budget limitations, wasn't a cast member on that show.)

Barry Watson wrote an episode of 7th Heaven (not one of the two he directed).

Robert Culp loved doing this on his shows: Trackdown, I Spy, and The Greatest American Hero all had episodes he wrote (AND directed). In addition, he wrote one of the two episodes of Cain's Hundred on which he guest-starred (strangely averted with The Rifleman - he guest-starred on two episodes and also wrote a two-parter in which he does not appear!).

Peter Falk wrote one script for Columbo, in which the Lieutenant is romanced by a Femme Fatale. He held it back until finding the perfect co-star: Faye Dunaway, who turned the role into an Emmy.

Roger Smith wrote several episodes of 77 Sunset Strip.

Done quite a bit on The X-Files, especially in later seasons. David Duchovny wrote (and directed) two episodes: "The Unnatural" and "Hollywood AD", while co-developing storylines for seven others. Gillian Anderson wrote (and directed) season seven's "all things." William B. Davis (who plays The Smoking Man) wrote "En Ami."

Michael Imperioli wrote several episodes of The Sopranos. This is reflected in Christopher Moltisanti's interest in film and screenwriting.

Michael Landon got his start in writing with several scripts for his hit series Bonanza, including at least one episode where his character did not appear. He went on to write more episodes of Little House on the Prairie than anyone else, as well as create another successful vehicle for himself in Highway To Heaven.

Several CSI NY cast members have tried their hand at writing an episode. Gary Sinise has done one or two, and Melina Kanakaredes did an ep where Stella goes to Greece chasing a suspect - an ep which unfortunately drew mixed reviews from fans.

As well as directing the first season finale of The Client List, Jennifer Love Hewitt has co-story credit on that episode.

Stuart Hepburn played a recurrent character in early episodes of Taggart. The producer was so impressed by ideas he had for one scene he was in that he was later invited to come back and write whole episodes; he quickly became one of the most prolific writers after series creator Glenn Chandler.

Jim Rash wrote "Basic Human Anatomy" for the fourth season of Community.

Outside of three cast members of The Office (US) being staff writers (B.J. Novak, Mindy Kaling, and Paul Lieberstein), Steve Carell also wrote the season 2 finale "Casino Night" as well as "Survivor Man".

Taken to the extreme on The Red Green Show, as Steve Smith (who played the title character) wrote all 300 episodes. Rick Green (Bill) also wrote for most of the first eight seasons, and other episodes included contributions from Peter Wildman (Buzz Sherwood), Bob Bainborough (Dalton Humphrey), Jeff Lumby (Winston Rothschild), and Patrick McKenna (Harold Green).

The Wiz had two of the leads of the 2015 NBC production, Elijah Kelley (the Scarecrow) and Ne-Yo (the Tin Man), help write a new song, "We Got It". In it, Dorothy and her friends proclaim that The Power of Friendship can help them defeat Evilene and get their desires granted.

Maid Marian and Her Merry Men was created and written by its star Tony Robinson, however co-stars David Lloyd and Mark Billingham contributed a lot of ideas and ended up being co-credited for a couple of episodes.

Radio

In 1955, The Archers had an episode where Grace Archer, the wife of Phil, was killed off. (It may or may not have been coincidence that the episode went out on BBC radio the very night commercial television began.) The script had Grace's fate be conveyed in the final line of dialogue thus: "She... she died in my arms... on the way to hospital," but Norman Painting, who played Phil, suggested the line go "In my arms... on the way to hospital... she's dead!" Suffice to say that not only was this one of the most talked-about episodes of the soap, but Painting went on to write many, many episodes (and the book Forever Ambridge � 25 Years of The Archers), as well as act in them.

In Godspell, "By My Side," the only song retained from the original Off-Off-Broadway production, was composed by its performers, Peggy Gordon and Gilmer McCormick (with lyrics by non-cast-member Jay Hamburger).

Western Animation

Dan Castellaneta has so far written eight episodes of The Simpsons with his wife Deb Lacusta ("Days Of Wine And D'oh'ses"note season 11 episode where Barney gives up drinking and Bart and Lisa try and look for the perfect photograph for the town's phone book contest, "Gump Roast"note the final clip show episode from season 13 where Homer is honored at the Friars' Club with a roast, "The Ziff Who Came To Dinner,"note season fifteen episode where Artie Ziff hides out at the Simpson house after his business goes under and he's being hounded for cheating his shareholders "Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore,"note season seventeen episode where Homer goes to India after Mr. Burns outsources the nuclear plant while Patty and Selma kidnap Richard Dean Anderson after he tells them that he only did MacGyver to earn a paycheck "The Fight Before Christmas,"note a bizarre Christmas Episode that had an Inglorious Basterds parody, Martha Stewart showing Marge the true meaning of Christmas, and Katy Perry as the only human in a piece that has The Simpsons as Muppets "A Midsummer's Nice Dream,"note the episode where stoner comedians Cheech and Chong break up and use Homer and Principal Skinner as their new comedy partners while Marge tries to help the Crazy Cat Lady with her hoarding problem, "The Ten-Per-Cent Solution"note the episode where Krusty's show gets canceled again and Joan Rivers voices his first agent, who helps him revive his career with a cable show, and most recently "Havana Wild Weekend"note in which the Simpsons take Grandpa to Cuba for cheaper health care, and he wants to stay there upon being reinvigorated by nostalgia).

Despite Guest Star Ricky Gervais getting credit for writing the season 17 episode, Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife, he admits that he didn't really write much of it. He said that he only wrote the plot (which was his wife's idea), a couple of jokes and the song.

Like Rocko's Modern Life, Mr. Lawrence (who voices Plankton, Larry and various characters) wrote for SpongeBob SquarePants during the first two seasons. He returned to the show in Season 7. As of season 10, he's now the story editor.

Katie Crown (who voices Mary and Ms. Baker) wrote a handful of episodes in the second half of Clarence's first season.

Charlyne Yi, Chloe's VA, was credited for the story of the We Bare Bears episode Chloe and Ice Bear.

Sam Riegel, who voices Emperor Awesome as well as voice directing the show, had wrote 3 episodes of WanderOverYonder (The Bad Hatter, The Bad Neighbors, and The Robomechabotatron).

The Bobby's World episode "Bobby Phone Home" was written by Tino Insana, the voice of Uncle Ted.

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